Timepiece with indication of date and day of the week

ABSTRACT

A timepiece having means for recording, or indicating, data of the date of the month and day of the week wherein such data is provided by indicia respectively inscribed on a rotating ring and a concentrically arranged rotating disk. A first shift finger extending through a rotatable guide casing is pivotally mounted on a fixed member in the timepiece, and engages means for drivingly advancing the disk. A second shift finger is mounted on the guide casing and engages the ring. The shift fingers are disposed in different planes to avoid contact by the first shift finger with driven teeth on the ring. Rotation of the guide casing serves to rotate the shift fingers, and hence the ring and disk. The first shift finger is mounted eccentrically with respect to the guide casing so as not to interfere with movement of the ring, and to permit a wide variety in the selection of the position of a driving element.

United States Patent Scholz [54] TIMEPIECE WITH INDICATION OF DATE AND DAY OF THE WEEK [72] Inventor: Gunther Scholz, Schrarnberg, Wurttemberg, Germany [73] Assignee: Gebruder Junghans G.m.b.H.,

Schramberg, Germany 221 Filed: March 10, 1971 [21] Appl. No.: 122,941

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data March 18, 1970 Germany ..G 70 10 018.4

FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 374,336 2/1964 Switzerland ..58/58 [451 Oct. 10,1972

Primary ExaminerRichard B. Wilkinson Assistant Examiner-George H. Miller, Jr. Attomey-Burns, Doane, Swecker & Mathis [57] ABSTRACT A timepiece having means for recording, or indicating, data of the date of the month and day of the week wherein such data is provided by indicia respectively inscribed on a rotating ring and a concentrically arranged rotating disk. A first shift finger extending through a rotatable guide casing is pivotally mounted on a fixed member in the timepiece, and engages means for drivingly advancing the disk. A second shift finger is mounted on the guide casing and engages the ring. The shift fingers are disposed in different planes to avoid contact by the first shift finger with driven teeth on the ring. Rotation of the guide casing serves to rotate the shift fingers, and hence the ring and disk. The first shift finger is mounted eccentrically with respect to the guide casing so as not to interfere with movement of the ring, and to permit a wide variety in the selection of the position of a driving element,

4 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures PATENTED our 10 m2 INVENTOR GUNTHER SCHOLZ BY 5M, O M4! Mae;

ATTORNEYS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The invention relates to a timepiece with recording, i.e., indicating, of the date of the month and day of the week, where the pertinent data indicia of the date and of the day of the week appear in at least one window provided in the timepiece dial. More particularly this invention relates to such a timepiece wherein indicia are provided on concentrically arranged rings or disks, both of which are stepped up by shift fingers operated by a driving element.

A timepiece with indication of the date and the days of the week is known where indicia are attached to the two recording, i.e., indicating rings arranged eccentrically, with one ring placed inside the other and with both rings in the same plane. In such an'arrangement, the inside ring is provided with a toothing on its outside periphery for tangentially engaging a toothing on the inside periphery of the outside ring to drive the latter. The eccentric mounting may not be entirely acceptable, and it also prohibits the numerals of the dates from being provided continuously on the outside ring.

Furthermore, a day and date indicating timepiece has been known where the indicia are attached to concentric adjoining toothed rings. The advancing or The guide casing may carry a second shift finger engaging a toothing of a date ring. Advantageously, both shift fingers may be arranged in different planes to avoid striking of the eccentric shift finger against the toothing of the date ring.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent as the invention is explained in more detail in the following paragraphs on the basis stepping up of the rings is accomplished with the aid of at a certain place, which is often not possible without some difficulties.

OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The object of the invention is to produce a timepiece of the initially mentioned type where the positioning of the driving element is not particularly limited to a cer tain location and where it can be made relatively small. According to the invention, this is intended to be achieved by the provision of a shift finger rotatable eccentrically with respect to the driving element and moved by the driving element around its bearing. The driving element may be a wheel mounted on a fixed element with the aid of a guide casing. The eccentric shift finger is mounted on the fixed element and passes through a perforation in the guide casing.

Because of the eccentric mounting of the shift finger, the shift finger projects fully beyond the driving element only during engagement with a pertinent wheel for drivingly advancing an indicating ring or disk. Upon continued rotation of the driving element the eccentric shift finger is pulled progressively further within the confines of the outer boundary of the driving element. In this fashion, the driving element can be movably positioned relatively closely to one of the indicating rings or disks.

The days of the week may be inscribed on a disk rotatable around the axis of the hands. That disk may in turn be connected with a star wheel for movement therewith. A transmission wheel operated by the eccentric shift finger engages with the star wheel. With the foregoing arrangement, the position of the driving element can be selected within wide limits.

of the drawings showing an embodiment of the invention by way of example. In the drawings like numerals indicate like elements and:

THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 shows a partial top plan presentation of parts of a timepiece according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 shows the driving element and a part of the date ring of FIG. 1 in a different functional position, as compared to FIG. 1; and

FIG. 3 shows a' cross-sectional view taken on line III-III in FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Referring now to the drawings and particularly to FIG. 1, a timepiece according to the present invention is partially shown having a rotatable date ring 10 mounted in the timepiece in any known manner. The date ring is provided with an internal toothing 10a. A catch 11 biased by a lock spring 12, is mounted adjacent the toothing 10a for holding the date ring in certain successive positions after the date ring is incrementally advanced in shift intervals. Mounted rotatably around the axis of rotation of the timepiece hands (not shown) is a disk 13 which carries the symbols or indicia for the days of the week. The disk is coupled to a rotatably mounted star wheel 14 for movement therewith. A rotatably mounted transmission wheel 15 engages the star wheel 14 for incrementally, drivingly advancing the latter. The transmission wheel 15 is moved by an eccentric shift finger 21, the operation of which will be discussed subsequently. A rotatably mounted catch 16 is biased toward the star wheel 14 by a lock spring 17 for maintaining the star wheel, and therefore the coupled day disk, in successive incrementally advanced positions.

The timepiece movement may include a rotatably mounted change gear 28 having a change drive 29 mounted for rotation therewith. The change drive drivingly engages an hour wheel 26, the hour whee] being rotatably mounted for driving the timepiece hands. It will be appreciated that the hour wheel 26 is rotatable with respect to the star wheel 14.

Furthermore, an intermediate gear 27 engages and is driven by the driven hour wheel 26. This intermediate gear drives a driving element in the form of a driving gear 18. The driving element is operative to incrementally advance the indicia bearing date ring 10 and day disk 13.

As can be seen particularly in FIG. 3, the driving gear 18 is attached to a guide casing 19 rotatable therewith, the latter being mounted rotatably on an extension 20a of a fixed work plate 20. The guide casing 19 held on its bearing at the extension 20a, with the aid of a cover plate 24. This cover plate 24 is held on the fixed plate 20 by a screw 22. The cover plate 24 is provided with a stamping or projection 23, which engages an opening of the work plate, and thus represents a safety against torsion in that the cover plate 24 cannot rotate. v

The generally annular guide casing 19 hasa peripheral slot 19a through which the shift finger 21 projects. This shift finger 21 is mounted on the cover plate 24 by the screw 22 for rotation about the screw axis. It will be appreciated that the orientation of the shift finger 21 is such thatit is rotatable eccentrically in relation to the axis of driving gear 18.

The continued incremental shifting of the rotatable date ring is accomplished with a second shift finger 25 which is rigidly attached to guide casing 19 and projects outwardly from the periphery thereof. The stepby-step advancing action of the concentrically rotatable day disk 13 takes place through the cooperation of the star'wheel 14 withthe transmission gear 15. The transmission gear is driven by the eccentric shift finger 21 as that finger is rotated about its bearing 22 upon rotation of the slotted guide casing 19. This latter rotation (and the resultant driving of the eccentric shift finger by engagement with the boundary of the slot 19a) is caused by rotation of the driving gear 18.

As will be apparent, when the change gear 28 turns, it drives the hour wheel 26 through the change drive 29, thus rotating the hands. The hour wheel 26, in turn, drives the intermediate gear 27, the latter serving to drive the driving gear 18. Rotation of the driving gear 18 is such that each 24 hour movement of the hour wheel 26 serves to incrementally advance both the date ring 10 and the day disk 13 by an amount representative of one day.

In the position shown in FIG. 1, the shift finger 21, while being rotated clockwise about the screw 22 by the casing 19, completely passes through the perforation or slot 19a in the guide casing 19 and engages the 7 transmission gear 15. Further rotation of the eccentric finger 21 causes the transmission gear 15 to be turned a sufficient amount about its axis whereby it, in turn, rotates the star wheel 14 an additional increment. Rotation of the star wheel 14 is permitted by the spring 17, which allows the biased catch 16 to be pivoted outwardly by teeth on the star wheel 14. The spring 17 then biases the catch 16 inwardly to engage the next star wheel tooth and thus hold the star wheel in a new position in which the next day of the week on the 'day disk 13 has been moved into view through an opening in the timepiece dial 30.

. The casing 19 also causes date ring 10 to rotate by means of the integral shift finger 25. As in the case of the catch 16, the catch 11 is biased outwardly by a tooth 10a and then engages the next tooth to hold ring 10 in its new position until the casing 19 makes another revolution. In this manner, each revolution of finger 25 causes a new date on ring 10 to come into view. In the case of further turning of the driving gear 18 and of the guide casing 19, the eccentric shift finger 21 is drawn farther and farther into the guide casing 19 due to its eccentric positioning with respect to ring 19. The path of movement of the eccentric shift finger 21 is indicated by the arrow and the adjacent dotted circle in FIGS. 1 and 2.

In the position of the guide casing according to FIG. 2, the eccentric shift finger 21 has been almost completely drawn into the guide casing 19. Consequently it is possible to position the movable driving gear 18 with the guide casing 19 relatively close to the date ring 10, without the eccentric shift finger 21 striking against the date ring 10.

Advantageously, the eccentric shift finger 21 lies in a different plane than the casing-carried shift finger 25. In this fashion, the eccentric shift finger 21, in the position shown in FIG. 2, does not strike against the toothing 10 a of the date ring 10.

Although'the present invention has been described in connection with details of a specific embodiment it is to be understood that such details are not intended to limit the scope of the invention. The terms and expressions employed are used in a descriptive and not a limiting sense and modifications not specifically noted may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention defined in the appended claims:

What is claimed is:

1. In a timepiece having a pair of rotatable members provided with indicia respectively representative of the dates of the month and days of the week, the improvement wherein means for rotating said members comprises:

a rotatable driving element comprising a driving wheel;

an eccentric shift finger means rotatably mounted eccentrically with respect to said driving element and rotatably driven by said driving element; said eccentric shift finger means i being operatively coupled to one of said rotatable members to incrementally advance said one of said members; a fixed timepiece element; and a guide casing rotatably mounted on said fixed element with said driving wheel for rotation with said driving wheel; pivot means rotatably supporting said eccentric shift finger means; slot means carried by said guide casing and disposed outwardly of and being operable to rotate about, said pivot means; i said eccentric shift finger means being rotatably mounted by said pivot means on said fixed element and extending through said slot in said guide casmg. 2. The improvement according to claim 1 wherein: said one of said rotatable members comprises a disk provided with indicia representative of the days of the week; said disk being rotatably mounted about the axis of rotation of hands of said timepiece; said means for rotating further including:

a rotatably mounted star wheel operatively,

drivingly connected to said disk; a rotatable transmission gear operatively, drivingly engageable with said star wheel; said transmission gear being incrementally drivable by said eccentric shift finger. 3. The improvement according to claim 1 wherein:

. the other of said rotatable members comprises a toothed ring provided with indicia representative of the dates of a month;

said means for rotating including a ring shift finger mounted on said guide casing and engageable with the teeth of said ring.

4. The improvement according to claim 3 wherein:

both of said shift fingers are mounted in different planes. 

1. In a timepiece having a pair of rotatable members provided with indicia respectively representative of the dates of the month and days of the week, the improvement wherein means for rotating said members comprises: a rotatable driving element comprising a driving wheel; an eccentric shift finger means rotatably mounted eccentrically with respect to said driving element and rotatably driven by said driving element; said eccentric shift finger means being operatively coupled to one of said rotatable members to incrementally advance said one of said members; a fixed timepiece element; and a guide casing rotatably mounted on said fixed element with said driving wheel for rotation with said driving wheel; pivot means rotatably supporting said eccentric shift finger means; slot means carried by said guide casing and disposed outwardly of and being operable to rotate about, said pivot means; said eccentric shift finger means being rotatably mounted by said pivot means on said fixed element and extending through said slot in said guide casing.
 2. The improvement according to claim 1 wherein: said one of said rotatable members comprises a disk provided with indicia representative of the days of the week; said disk being rotatably mounted about the axis of rotation of hands of said timepiece; said means for rotating further including: a rotatably mounted star wheel operatively, drivingly connected to said disk; a rotatable transmission gear operatively, drivingly engageable with said star wheel; said transmission gear being incrementally drivable by said eccentric shift finger.
 3. The improvement according to claim 1 wherein: the other of said rotatable members comprises a toothed ring provided with indicia representative of the dates of a month; said means for rotating including a ring shift finger mounted on said guide casing and engageable with the teeth of said ring.
 4. The improvement according to claim 3 wherein: both of said shift fingers are mounted in different planes. 